It seems like Chris Hemsworth has been a full-fledged movie star for a long time, but he's a young pup compared to his Avengers co-stars. While Hemsworth was well known in his native Australia for a string of television appearances in the 2000s, he only made his Hollywood debut in 2009 as the father of Capt. James T. Kirk in JJ Abrams' Star Trek. So he was only two full years into his film acting career when he landed his defining role as Thor in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Since then, he has worked with several legendary authors ("Blackhat" with Michael Mann and "Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga" with George Miller), but for the most part he is clearly defined, perhaps even a small type, like Thor.

Now that the MCU seems to be on the fence about the brand that's calling all the cars in the wake of box office uncertainty after Avengers: Endgame (which forced Marvel Studios to bring back Robert Downey Jr. and Chris Evans), Hemsworth may be gone anytime soon. to get rid of the God of Thunder. This would be unfortunate because he was magnificently depraved in Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and clearly has the potential to do more nuanced characters if given the opportunity. Unfortunately, one of the few films that previously offered him a chance to flaunt his chops turned out to be a costly flop at the box office. And while that film is now getting some streaming love, will it be enough to repair its reputation and bolster Hemsworth's cred as a first-rate actor?

According to Flix PatrolRon Howard's 2015 flop In the Heart of the Sea is currently the most watched movie on Netflix. After debuting on the service last week, it beat other new entries like Kevin Costner's 2024 bomb Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 and, interestingly, Furiosa: The Mad Max Saga (which also earned less than its exorbitant production budget seems ripe for a strong streaming series). But why is this 10-year-old Hemsworth film more popular than his 2024 blockbuster?

Howard's film purportedly tells the true story of the real-life whaling expedition that inspired Herman Melville to write "Moby-Dick," which apparently proved a not-so-terribly effective hook when the film opened to $11.1 million domestically in December. 11, 2015. The film was subsequently removed from the multiplexes by the arrival of Star Wars: Episode VII - The Force Awakens, and pretty well forgotten by now. One element that may inspire people to finally dive home is its stacked cast: Hemsworth's companions on this whale-stalking voyage include Tom Holland, Cillian Murphy, Brendan Gleeson and Ben Whishaw. Two beloved MCU stars and the red-hot Murphy is certainly a hotter draw than revisiting a novel most people shoved down their throats before they were old enough to appreciate its brilliance.

Whatever is driving this hype, it will be interesting to see if it's enough to keep the film from falling behind the far superior Furiosa, which continues to be strangely unappetizing to most mainstream moviegoers.